GAA gear up for bumper weekend

Gaelic games:A couple of big replays have transformed what was always going to be a big Sunday in Gaelic games into a bumper couple of days that constitute the biggest weekend of the GAA's championship season to date.

Already RTÉ have been straining to accommodate all the action from two Munster hurling semi-finals as well as the match that looks likely to decide the Ulster football championship plus a packed Croke Park, which tomorrow features the latest instalment in the long running Dublin-Meath rivalry. In the end the national broadcaster bit the bullet and fixed Dublin-Meath and the Cork-Waterford match from Thurles, which are being played largely simultaneously, for separate channels, RTÉ1 and RTÉ2.

More than 150,000 will attend the weekend's programme, which also includes the Connacht football semi-final between Roscommon and Sligo plus the Louth-Wexford curtain raiser at Croke Park tomorrow.

Full houses in Croke Park are high points of the championship season and the GAA's headquarters will be packed again tomorrow to see if Meath can secure a first win over their neighbours in six years. Or whether the Leinster champions can push on in pursuit of a third successive title. Or if the counties are going to produce another epic series by going to a second replay for the first time since the four-match saga of 1991.

Much of the attention on tomorrow's Munster hurling semi-final has been focused on off-field considerations but the meeting of defending champions Cork and National League winners Waterford was always going to be the pivotal fixture in this year's provincial championship.

The counties have had some memorable matches in the last five years and Waterford are the favourites going into this. A consensus has developed this could be the year the county wins an All-Ireland. It will take a steady nerve though with the path to such success blocked by five big matches en route, assuming Justin McCarthy's don't have to detour through the qualifiers.

Matters get under way this evening in Thurles with the replay of last weekend's dramatic drawn tie between Limerick and Tipperary. Having survived with 14 men through a late, late goal from Pat Tobin Limerick remain underdogs but at tighter odds.

Limerick players have said they would prefer to play at Semple Stadium but the history of such visits hasn't been kind to the county and you have to go back 34 years for the last time they defeated Tipperary in Thurles, coincidentally the same year that the county won its last All-Ireland. There have been three draws since but Limerick are still awaiting both a win over Tipp in their home venue and the Liam MacCarthy. Because of injuries and selection quandaries Tipp manager Michael Keating has delayed naming his side until today.

Finally Donegal manager Brian McIver yesterday named his team to face Tyrone. It shows one change from the side that defeated Armagh in the first round last month. Brendan Devenney, who played for 20 minutes of the Armagh match, is again fully fit and starts tomorrow in place of Christy Toye, who is ruled out with chicken pox. Michael Hegarty is also included at left-corner forward despite having only recently recovered from knee surgery.

There is considerable scepticism about the prospects of Hegarty actually starting but no fixed view of who might replace him. The experienced Adrian Sweeney has been used as a regular replacement this season but may not be seen as an option for starting.

With the three Ulster favourites, Armagh, Donegal and Tyrone, on the same side of the draw tomorrow's winners will be hotly fancied to overcome the winners of next week's Derry-Monaghan semi-final.

Yesterday evening's meeting of the GAA's Central Appeals Committee was still deliberating late into the night on the cases made by three Cork players against their suspensions arising from the pre-match fracas at last month's Munster championship match against Clare in Thurles. The three players, Dónal Cusack, Diarmuid O'Sullivan and Seán Ó hAilpín, were all in attendance as they attempted to clear themselves in time for tomorrow's Munster semi-final against Waterford.

The hearing convened early in the evening but was running more than three and a half hours later in order to reach a conclusion, which could be communicated to the parties immediately in order to expedite any recourse to the Disputes Resolution Authority. The CAC chair, Jim Forbes, who is from Cork, had to step down as did Tom Downes from Clare and Waterford member Pat Flynn. It was believed former Galway referee Michael Curley took the chair. The appeals of the Clare players weren't heard as it isn't as urgent given their next match is the qualifier against Antrim in two weeks.

DONEGAL(SFC v Tyrone): P Durcan; N McGee, P Campbell, K Lacey; P McGonigley, B Monaghan, B Dunnion; N Gallagher, K Cassidy; B Roper, C Bonner, R Kavanagh; C McFadden, B Devenney, M Hegarty.